Midlands schools back up and running after staff shortages, school board vote
Midlands high schools that were beset by staff shortages were back up and running Thursday, after three schools reverted to online course work earlier in the week.
Students were back in class at Chapin, Dutch Fork and Irmo high schools on Thursday for the first time since all three schools were closed due to a high level of staff absences on Tuesday, and one day after the Lexington-Richland 5 school board approved a proposal to scale back its reopening plan and return high schools to a two-day “hybrid” plan.
All three schools were closed when a high number of staff called out the day after the school board declined to act on the superintendent’s request for a schedule change despite rising levels of staff shortages and quarantines caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
A district spokeswoman said Lexington-Richland 5 monitored its reported absences overnight and determined the district would be able to open all three schools Thursday.
Under the proposal approved Wednesday, schools are operating normally on Thursday and Friday, after a regular virtual learning day on Wednesday. Students in seventh to 12th grade will resume a hybrid schedule on Monday, when two cohorts of students will alternate on campus twice a week, and learn remotely the other three days.
Classes at all grade levels in the district will be remote Dec. 16 to Dec. 18, to allow for more effective contact tracing ahead of the winter break. Four-day-a-week classes, with one day a week for virtual learning, are currently set to resume in January.
Elsewhere, Brookland-Cayce High School in Lexington 2 was operating normally on Thursday. The day before, more than 20 staff were out, and the school instead operated with substitutes. A district spokeswoman said absences Thursday were about half what they were on Wednesday.
Multiple teachers and at least one member of the Lexington-Richland 5 school board described the high level of absences as a protest against the districts’ re-entry policies. Students from Lexington-Richland 5 also also protested outside Wednesday’s school board meeting calling for a return to the hybrid model.
This story was originally published December 3, 2020 at 3:48 PM.
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